Queen Street Bus Lane Submission
Submission to the Auckland City Council on the proposed Queen St bus lanes.
In general, The Campaign for Better Transport supports the creation of bus lanes on Queen Street to offset the delays which will be experienced to bus passengers through the introduction of three additional pedestrian crossings.
However, we remain disappointed that a private vehicle ban has not imposed on at least a section of Queen Street as we suggested in our joint submission to council in 2004. We believed at the time that there would be widespread public support for such a proposal, and public comments on the issue recently in the Herald forums indicate that this is still the case.
A significant number of people travel into the CBD via the public transport network. In May the ARC released the results of its 2006 transport monitoring survey. This found that public transport flows into the Auckland CBD in the morning peak have almost doubled in ten years, and are now around 30,000 passengers per day. About 75% of these journeys are by bus, although the rail share has been increasing.
Overall, 54% of all journeys to the CBD are made by car and 30% are made by bus. The remainder of trips are made by ferry, rail, walking and cycling. (It isn’t clear what category motorcycles and scooters fall into).
It is therefore critical to support the growth in public transport by making journey times more reliable, and bus lanes can help to achieve this.
We think the introduction of bus lanes could also benefit private vehicles using Queen Street, in that cars will not be obstructed by buses. (Perhaps the idea could have been pitched as a private vehicle right of way?). We have been unable to find any modeling done on this however.
We do not accept some retailer’s arguments that private vehicle access to Queen St is necessary for the retail sector. In fact, we believe a reduction in motorised traffic volumes will provide for a better shopping experience for most shoppers, all of whom are pedestrians.
We consider that there is more than adequate parking for those that choose to drive into the city. Furthermore we suspect a large proportion of shoppers during the week are working or studying in the city, but we have been unable to find figures in support of this. If this is the case then the need for vehicular access to Queen Street is further diminished – workers are unlikely to drive cars from work car parks to shop around Queen Street. They are far more likely to walk.
We also note that it is pedestrian counts that are far more beneficial to retailers than vehicle counts. It is pedestrian counts that drive retail shop leases.
Overseas experience shows that creating a quieter, less polluting, pedestrian friendly environment is attractive to shoppers. The photo here is of Bourke Street, where only trams are permitted on some sections. Note the two men able to have a conversation next to the street.
Do you have any comments on how the council proposes to operate bus lanes on Queen Street?
The use of any bus lanes must be balanced against the objective of providing a quiet, pollution - free experience for pedestrians. To achieve this we recommend:
- Use of Queen Street bus lanes be restricted to modern, low emission, quiet buses – especially the City Circuit electric / gas turbine buses.
- Consider bus priority measures at all traffic lights. We are aware that Auckland City has looked at signal pre-emption in the past, but are unaware of any outcome.
- Rerouting some bus services away from Queen Street. We don’t consider it necessary that all bus services use Queen Street. An example would be the 005 service from Herne Bay. Currently the inbound service comes in via Victoria Street and proceeds down Queen Street. However, very few passengers remain on the bus for this leg of the journey. Most downtown workers get off and walk down Hobson or Albert Streets. If this service was routed down Halsey and Fanshawe Streets (or Nelson Street and Fanshawe) , then the Viaduct Harbour area would also be better served by the 005. At the moment the Viaduct area suffers from a lack of public transport connectivity.
To further minimize traffic on Queen Street, Auckland City might also like to consider restricting times that courier vehicles are permitted. The photograph shows how loading zones are restricted in some streets in Melbourne to 10am, for example.
Retailer Concerns
We are aware of the concerns of some Queen Street retailers through the publication of an article in the New Zealand Herald entitled “Retailers counting the cost of bus lanes”, and wish to address some of these directly.
| Claim | Comment |
|---|---|
| Cars move more than twice the number of people in the city's main street than buses do. Buses in Queen St each carry an average of only seven passengers each during working hours. This was the result of an actual count. | The largest percentage of trips down Queen St are made on foot, so it isn’t clear what this is trying to show. For comparison it would be useful to know how many people travelled by car over the same period (presumably one person per car). It is relevant to know where exactly the survey was taken. A number of buses are starting or ending their runs at the bottom of Queen St, so the low passenger count is understandable. Furthermore, from experience, a number of passengers choose to walk down Queen St rather than remain on the bus. |
| The average of 7 passengers includes the free City Circuit red buses sponsored by Heart Of The City which are excellent and well patronised - but don't bring shoppers into the city. | The City Circuit bus is heavily patronized by commuters who have arrived at Britomart station by train and wish to travel to mid-town destinations, including the University. Shoppers and tourists also find the City Circuit service a convenient way of traveling between the various retail outlets on Queen Street. Dedicated bus lanes will benefit the City Circuit. |
| The council has suggested that buses in Queen St carry twice as many people as cars. In fact cars carry more than twice as many people than buses. | No evidence is supplied to support this statement. Again, most people walk, so it isn’t clear what the point of this statement is. |
| Most buses travelling up and down Queen St are not bringing people to the city. | This is not correct. The Link, Western Bays, Dominion Road and Onehunga services dominate the service schedule of buses using Queen Street. |
| For those few buses that are bringing people to the city and have to travel along Queen St, this part of their route is negligible in time and distance compared with their whole journey. Saving a minute or two during their time in Queen St at the expense of disrupting the rest of the traffic in Queen Street does not justify the 2 or 3 per cent saving in travel time for the one or two passengers on those few buses. | We agree that some services could be routed away from Queen Street. |
| The urgency to ram this through is apparent from an ACC memo that "this represents the only opportunity to do it at a time when the traffic has already been forced out of the street". Note the use of the word "forced". | The CBT understands that the bus lanes are necessary to offset delays caused by the introduction of three additional pedestrian traffic lights. |
| …research showed that each P15 parking space in Queen St brought in $650,000 a year in weekday sales to retailers. The P15s were used 100 per cent 11 hours a weekday from 9am to 8pm. The average P15 user - including those who bought nothing - spent $56.75 a visit. The present temporary removal of the P15 spaces will account for part of the downturn being experienced by the inner city. | The CBT doubts that anyone drives to the CBD with the intention of finding a 15 minute car park outside their shop of choice. The implication here is that retailers would benefit from more 15 minute car parks, but as lease prices show it is foot traffic that drives retail sales volumes, not proximity to short term car parks. This statistic is meaningless without some attempt to quantify the value of removing P15 parks in favour of broader pavements for pedestrians. |
| Heart of the City, the CBD mainstreet organisation that represents Queen St owners and retailers - those most affected by the plan - has agreed to fund a professional study to confirm the true relationship between cars and buses. | Rather than surveying cars and buses, it would be more useful if retailers surveyed their customers to understand their transport habits, and their ideas for creating a more pleasant shopping experience. |
| Aucklanders must oppose the council's plan to perpetuate the vehicle congestion caused by the present works. | Car travel times could well improve if buses are restricted to their own lane. No research into this appears to have been conducted. |